11/15 Tech v. UGA

[GTrob21]

We are not a good team. We don't use our size well at all. Our bigs are out of position for rebounds, and our 3-point shooting isn't good enough to stretch the opponent's defense. That allows them to stay compact, clog the lanes, and disrupt our half-court offense.

I hate to say this, but it looks like our team has low Basketball IQ. Constantly our passes are just a little bit off. Instead of putting the ball where the shooter can catch it in rhythm, we always seem to have to reach back to grab the pass, or we are slightly out of sync. It's the little things that make a huge difference at this level. Another moment that was a head-scratcher for me was that Ndongo was constantly playing low but out toward the right wing. He wasn't down low fighting for position, or truly out on the wing. It looks like he was hunting for space, but he was in no mans land for long periods of the game. The problem with that is that we would also have a winger in the same area. We are running ball screens at the top trying to get people open, and we have two players in similar proximity that only take 1 of their guys to guard. We loose numbers, and we were constantly running our offense 3 v 4.

We are a math school, those are bad odds.


Lastly, I was pretty high on the incoming class, in particular the guards. So far from what I have seen, it's going to be a while before they start contributing at this level. The better teams, seem to get Freshman who are ready to contribute. We seem to get guys who need time to develop.

 

[spdrama]

Do yall think we're gonna be firing the coach any time soon? Strange conversations going on.

The geniuses are out in force. We have to go undefeated to never see them show up here. The guy who doesn’t like your “strange conversations” thinks Batt won’t f around and fire CDS. Short memories abound. Damon didn’t raise his hand, email a resume and win an interview saying “pick me, pick me”. Batt went on a search and plucked his coach off a playoff NBA team. The guy wasn’t even looking for a job. Throws him into a bottom dwelling, losing mess and haters think he’s going to ****can him 4 games into his second season of trying to rebuild the Humpty Dumpty of the ACC in a NIL war zone landscape without equal weaponry.

Lots of things coaches can do in rebuilding and making a team competitive, including recruiting HS & portal, conditioning, teaching, practicing, preparing, encouraging & motivating. What they can’t do is executing on the floor in real time. Sometimes it just comes down to players performing and some nights they just don’t do that very well. Hopefully GT has more good than bad performances this season and ends up with a better record than last year. I have no issue with those who hope for more and get disappointed when we lose. Little early in this coach’s tenure for me to join the rebellion against CDS group, started by some here before his first season even tipped off. My finger is getting sore. Damn ignore button.

 

[Oakland]

Pastner was a good X & O coach.
CDS is a very good recruiter.
In today's basketball world, I don't know which is better to have if you had to choose between the two abilities.

 

[Peacone36]

At he game. Bumped into Haynes King. Got to wish him good luck for Thursday’s game. Kicking myself for not saying “To Hell With Georgia”.

We’re somehow worse than I expected, yet exactly where I thought we’d be.

You get used to it after 30 years. One team overachieved in that time. Every other one underachieves or barely met expectations, which are usually low to begin with.

You don’t even have to watch the games. We’re gonna smoke Cinci now, there will be “nice we’re back, turning the corner” talk on here and then lose by a bazillion to whoever we play around finals.

Then we’ll beat Duke and get thrashed by BC at home. Next year though, we have a good class coming in, gonna be our year! Until everything mentioned before happens all over again.

 

[AUFC]

Just finished up watching. I think 2-2 is about where we probably expected to be at this point, maybe 3-1 but I don't think the goal has changed. The Cincinnati game next Saturday becomes huge for a resume-boosting opportunity next Saturday. We will need to go on a tear right now and win the next 4 in a row to put ourselves in bubble position entering ACC play.

Mike White's UGA is a good defensive team so I'll give them some credit on shutting down our offense but we devolved into a lot of street ball in the first half. We can't have players getting the ball into their hands and then processing what to do next in this offense. I actually didn't think our defense looked too bad for the first 30 minutes, but we had a fatal couple minutes after that where UGA went on a huge run and the defensive energy and focus just deflated. You go into a hostile environment and killshots like that can happen but those kind of things shouldn't really be happening on our home court.

For the "CDS is a bad coach and never plays zone" crew, you got your wish - we played zone and they literally dribble penetrated it and hit an open pull up from the free throw line.

 

[Richland County]

The team isn't organized and the basketball IQ seems to be low for some reason. Definitely not the start anyone was expecting.

 

[spdrama]

Pastner was a good X & O coach.
CDS is a very good recruiter.
In today's basketball world, I don't know which is better to have if you had to choose between the two abilities.

Maybe if these games were played on a clipboard with Xs & Os instead of on hardwood with 18-21 year-olds, Pastner would still be here.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

Pastner was a good X & O coach.
CDS is a very good recruiter.
In today's basketball world, I don't know which is better to have if you had to choose between the two abilities.

I would say 75% recruiting, 25% coaching, but you have to have both.

 

[57jacket]

I always felt we didn't have a true 5. I love Bdongo, but he is an outstanding 4, not a 5. Our defensive rebounding, from what I can see , is pretty bad. I can't attend the games, so if some KNOWLEGABLE fan who attends could provide some input I would appreciate it. Giving up 2nd chance points is avoidable, even to a larger team, if everyone blocks out. In my playing days 100 years ago, I blocked out guys 5-6 inches taller than me in the post.

 

[spdrama]

I always felt we didn't have a true 5. I love Bdongo, but he is an outstanding 4, not a 5. Our defensive rebounding, from what I can see , is pretty bad. I can't attend the games, so if some KNOWLEGABLE fan who attends could provide some input I would appreciate it. Giving up 2nd chance points is avoidable, even to a larger team, if everyone blocks out. In my playing days 100 years ago, I blocked out guys 5-6 inches taller than me in the post.

I remember those days 57. At 6’3” we were BIGs in HS & blocking out was a bit easier because there was no trey shooting with balls springing off the rim well beyond the front court reach of the tallest players. Rebounding game today impacted by three point shooting even more so than offense since misses are greater than makes at that distance. Focus much the same by the rebounding big man, but now they need springboard/trampoline bounce anticipation and much greater instincts. The players at any position who just stand still, including the shooter, watching threes travel through the air like a watching a night comet need to be benched. The shooter is actually in the best spot to watch & know when a miss going to occur. Watching them stand flat-footed praying the ball goes in should bother any coach.

 

[AUFC]

I always felt we didn't have a true 5. I love Bdongo, but he is an outstanding 4, not a 5. Our defensive rebounding, from what I can see , is pretty bad. I can't attend the games, so if some KNOWLEGABLE fan who attends could provide some input I would appreciate it. Giving up 2nd chance points is avoidable, even to a larger team, if everyone blocks out. In my playing days 100 years ago, I blocked out guys 5-6 inches taller than me in the post.

The defensive rebounding hasn't really been that bad. DO is making a huge difference and we are 64/363 in DRB%. Neither of the games we lost were a result of giving up second chance points.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Maybe it’s good people are interested enough to complain.

There’s a learning curve for players (and fans) to grasp the CDS system. I’m not worried.

 

[spdrama]

Maybe it’s good people are interested enough to complain.

There’s a learning curve for players (and fans) to grasp the CDS system. I’m not worried.

Big difference between interested fans who complain one day about watching bad play and praising the next day following good play and “so-called” fans who just relish in bashing teams, players, coaches after every loss, never having anything good to say, contributing nothing to real forum discourse

 

[MtnWasp]

Much like a poker player entering a game, a new coach comes in with a cache of "good will" chips he has to play with. With good wins, the coach wins more chips. When the coach loses he loses good will chips. The coach loses lots of chips with bad losses, like to small schools or to rival schools.

Damon Stoudamire is losing lots of chips so far this season. A 19 point first half at home is just really bad. A GT coach simply has to have his team better prepared than that to survive. It is the naked truth of the situation.

Historically, philosophers have made bad leaders because the people under them have trouble translating ethereal principles to concrete actions.

I see that Stoudamire is trying to instill Zen-like discipline and self sacrifice in his players but most of the time to get there an average person has to be told explicitly, "you go here, and do this." He has a big enough staff to get that done. I don't see evidence so far that his players are understanding the lessons that he is trying to instill. I don't see the toughness and I don't see the discipline.

We saw this kind of thing under Paul "I don't have any magic plays" Hewitt. He came in saying that players are "over-coached and under-taught." He was going to teach guys how to play fluidly the game of basketball. Once Keener and Warren left, we saw what that looked like.

Wins and losses aside, this coach is going to have to show the basketball world that he is building some kind of identity in the program that shows up regularly on the court. Right now and from one game to the next it is all Helter Skelter. One game we are scoring at will, the next we can't score twenty in a half. Another game we can't make any stops at all. Same stuff last year.

Schizophrenia is not a program identity.

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

Same **** different year. If Damon Stoudamire's name was John Smith and he didn't have NBA experience, 99% of our fanbase would already be done with him. Maybe he turns it around but it hasn't been good. At all.

 

[Techwood Relict]

Schizophrenia is not a program identity.

Used to coach my guys, "Hope is not a basketball play".

On the bright side, it makes scouting our team difficult.....

 

[Techwood Relict]

I sense an NBA state of mind to his start of season - the “it’s a long season, we have to figure some things out, they’ll get there”.

I'm trying to remember the last season in which GT fall semester basketball didn't give me an upset fan stomach. Gimme me a minute. It'll come to me.

 

[MWBATL]

I watched the first 5 minutes of last night’s game with SWMBO and we were both so bored and disgusted we turned it off. And neither of us even thought about actually going to the game. Folks who complain about the lack of fan support need to realize that you actually need to give us (more casual) fans something to cheer about before we will begin attending games.

Winning counts. Entertaining play counts. Losing and showing terrible basketball skills also count…in the negative.

Sorry to be so brutally honest, as I do root for the program and remember vividly the glory years of GT basketball. But you gotta give me a reason to get excited….

 

[57jacket]

The defensive rebounding hasn't really been that bad. DO is making a huge difference and we are 64/363 in DRB%. Neither of the games we lost were a result of giving up second chance points.

I counted 4 putbacks for 8 pts. in the 1st 5-6 minutes What were you watching?

 

[grandpa jacket]

I watched the first 5 minutes of last night’s game with SWMBO and we were both so bored and disgusted we turned it off. And neither of us even thought about actually going to the game. Folks who complain about the lack of fan support need to realize that you actually need to give us (more casual) fans something to cheer about before we will begin attending games.

Winning counts. Entertaining play counts. Losing and showing terrible basketball skills also count…in the negative.

Sorry to be so brutally honest, as I do root for the program and remember vividly the glory years of GT basketball. But you gotta give me a reason to get excited….

I agree, year in and year out UGAG wants to win more in all sports.